Earth Day is coming up on April 22nd. What are you doing to play your part and be eco-friendly?

Smartphone apps can be extremely helpful when it comes to monitoring your energy usage and carbon footprint. Some can even help you reduce your energy emissions and be more environmentally conscious. So, if you’ve been a little guilty of wasting energy or simply not bothering to track your personal impact on the environment, the six apps below can help you get on the right track.

Additionally, Wiser Home was designed with a ripple effect in mind: By using this app, you’re contributing to a larger movement that helps electricity providers all over the country improve the efficiency of the grid at large. How’s that for making a difference?

Energy Saving Trust, the Scotland-based organization that developed FuelGood, estimates that the average driver can save up to two months’ worth of fuel every year by driving more efficiently. The FuelGood app is designed to get you there.

You may not be in a place to make major lifestyle changes through purchases – such as investing in a new electric car – but by changing your personal driving habits, you can actually make a huge difference.

When you input your car type, age and engine size, FuelGood will respond with an estimate of how much fuel you can save by developing good habits, which are listed in the Tips section. (To find even more driving apps, check out this list of ones that can help you save gas money8 Unique Apps to Help You Save Gas Money8 Unique Apps to Help You Save Gas MoneySaving money on gas is not only good for yourself, but also for the planet. These apps help you efficiently manage your vehicle’s mileage and fuel costs while building good driving habits.Read More.)

CarbonDiem is an app designed to keep tabs on all those types of movements so you can track your own personal carbon footprint, and then adjust it as necessary.

The app detects when you are traveling by road and calculates the emissions of the vehicle you’re traveling in. You can customize the calculations to be more accurate by specifying if you’re traveling by bus, car, or motorcycle.

For the health-conscious, CarbonDiem also shows how many calories you burn with each type of transport. You don’t need to input what type of transit you’re on. Based on your movements, CarbonDiem will figure out whether you’re traveling by train, metro, air, car or by foot.

There is one catch: CarbonDiem is only fully functional in Europe. However, everyone else can still use the app for air and road travel.

Did you know that electricity rates have almost doubled in the last 15 years? Energy Tracker allows you to understand your energy consumption habits based on gas, water, and electricity usage. The more you learn about your own habits, the more motivated you’ll be to change them.

For the forgetful among us, you can set up an alarm reminder so you never forget to input your daily energy consumption.

If the smartphone interface isn’t enough for you, feel free to export your measurement data to your desktop computer to get a more in-depth sense of how much energy you use.

Tracking your consumption is the first step to understanding the areas where you need to focus on saving energy. With this app, you can begin developing a better sense of where your energy usage is impacting the environment most.

CodeGreen Energy was developed to support homeowners, real estate professionals, property owners and even tenants. You can use the app to access Energy Star information about thousands of buildings, especially in major cities like New York, Seattle, Austin and San Francisco, which are all places that have emphasized the need for improved energy scores.

When you know how your building’s energy score compares to the scores of those around you, you’ll get a sense of your overall energy efficiency – as well as how you can improve it. CodeGreen Energy will also allow you to ensure that your building is in compliance with local and national standards for energy laws.

Energy-efficient lighting is all the rage, and for good reason – it’s a small but actionable way to make a difference in your home. Not only do energy-efficient bulbs consume less energy, but they’re also made to last 10 years or more.

Still, if you live in a home with a lot of different light fixtures, it can be hard to find the right bulb for each one. Light Bulb Finder solves that problem in a hurry, making it easy to switch from standard to energy-efficient lighting.

The app recommends bulbs based on quality, financial payback and environmental impact. It will point you in the direction of local retailers or allow you to buy new bulbs online through the app – a concrete way to make a difference in your carbon footprint with very little effort.

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Corey

April 5, 2015 at 6:45 am

Cool post @Kayla! I've got a site that I've created to catalog the actual power consumption of electronic devices so that people can get a more accurate estimate of their energy usage. The site name is WattDoesItuse but I won't link to it as I don't intend this to be a spam post.

Just like data in business, unless you measure and track, you can't get better.

"Not only do energy-efficient bulbs consume less energy, but they’re also made to last 10 years or more."
Is that based on empirical data or on wishful thinking and propaganda?

I have used both inexpensive and expensive energy efficient light bulbs in my house. Under normal use I have yet one last longer than a year which is about the same length of time that the bad, old incandescent light bulbs have lasted in the same applications. And the incandescents are about one tenth the price, not to mention that they do not contain mercury like the CFLs do.

LED light bulbs from GE and Cree come with 10 year warranties, so if you'd like to test out a single light bulb for 10 years and find that it doesn't live up to your standards, you can contact the company and have them replace it for you.